Cancer News

Broccoli Sprouts Show Effects Against Helicobacter pylori

-- Eric Metcalf

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

TUESDAY, April 7 (HealthDay News) -- Consumption of broccoli sprouts may reduce gastric inflammation in individuals with H. pylori infection, according to research published in the April Cancer Prevention Research.

Akinori Yanaka, M.D., Ph.D., of the Tokyo University of Science in Japan, and colleagues write that administration of broccoli sprouts in a mouse model of H. pylori infection decreased corpus gastritis, protected against gastric mucosal inflammation, and reduced gastric bacterial colonization.

In H. pylori-infected humans, consumption of 70 grams of broccoli sprouts daily for eight weeks was associated with decreased levels of urease as assessed by urea breath test and H. pylori stool antigen, which are biomarkers of H. pylori colonization, the researchers report. The sprouts were also associated with decreased levels of serum pepsinogens I and II, which are biomarkers of gastric inflammation.

"Complementary mouse and human evidence thus suggests that sulforaphane may have both a direct antibacterial effect on H. pylori, leading to reduced gastritis, as well as having an indirect (systemic) effect by increasing the mammalian cytoprotective (phase 2) response. It is not possible to determine the relative contributions of these two mechanisms from this study; however the findings in this study strongly suggest that sulforaphane has promise both as an antibacterial agent directed against H. pylori and as a dietary preventive agent against the development of human gastric cancer," the authors conclude.

A co-author disclosed a financial relationship with a company that produces broccoli sprouts, which is licensed to Johns Hopkins University.